Nelson takes his leave on shore

18 August 2004Written by ATG Reporter

OCTOBER 21, 2005 will see the bicentenary of the Battle of Trafalgar and many celebrations marking the most decisive naval victory in modern history are planned. However, it will not be until January 9, 2006 that we mark 200 years since the funeral of its most famous protagonist.

Pickled in a keg of naval brandy, it took more than two months
for Nelson's body to arrive in Portsmouth from the Iberian
Peninsula. He had reached London by the New Year and lay in state
in the Painted Hall at Greenwich Hospital for four days, his
funeral scheduled for January 9 1806.

It was the first state affair ever given to a commoner. The great
procession - the coffin rowed up the Thames on Charles II's royal
barge accompanied by over 60 other vessels - moved from Greenwich
to Whitehall Stairs "in one of the greatest aquatic processions
that ever was beheld on the river". From Whitehall the coffin moved
through the streets to St Paul's on a carriage designed as a
replica of HMS Victory, its miniature figurehead of Fame (acquired
by the National Maritime Museum in 1938) holding aloft a laurel
wreath. It is said that the sound of men removing their hats when
the cortege passed was like the murmur of a wave breaking on the
shore.

Six men from the Victory followed their admiral into the cathedral
with the ship-of-the-line's Union flag, their orders to drop it
into the crypt below to shroud the four coffins and a sarcophagus
originally made for Cardinal Wolsey.

As they arrived in position, immediately under the centre of the
great dome, a great ripping sound could be heard as they tore the
flag into several pieces, each stuffing a keepsake inside his
jerkin.

A rare memento of a momentous event was sold in the Lewes rooms of
specialist militaria auctioneers, Wallis & Wallis on July
20.

The black-edged funeral invitation, smaller than a postcard, is
applied with the black wax seal of the Shield of St Paul's and is
personally signed by the Dean. It is also inscribed, This ticket
must not be delivered to any Doorkeeper, in order, one supposes, to
prevent it being sold outside immediately before the event. The
hammer price of £1400 (plus 15 per cent buyer's premium) surpassed
all expectations.

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